Introduction

1. What is MIS infrastructure and the three primary types? In your answer, include the three areas associated with an information MIS infrastructure.
MIS infrastructure entails the plans that are directly related to the business structure requirements, the deployment of business processes, business performance, use of resources, and the process of sharing the assets that the MIS system contains (Turban et al., 2007). It is also about data and processing (Turban et al., 2007). The information MIS infrastructure plays the significant role of identifying where and how important information, including customer records, are maintained and properly safeguarded (Turban et al., 2007).It is noteworthy that an appropriate and effective MIS infrastructure is essential for a business because it helps an organization in alleviating costs, optimizing business operations, enhancing profitability of a business, improving the productivity of the organization, and for generating substantial organizational resources supporting business growth and development. The three primary types of MIS infrastructure are MIS supporting operations, MIS supporting change, and MIS supporting the environment (Turban et al., 2007). In this respect, it has to be noted that MIS infrastructure, as embodied by the aforesaid three types, determine where and how information is going to be stored, how agile MIS can be implemented, and how sustainability can be integrated in computing resources and in bringing about reduction in the degree of dependency (Turban et al., 2007).The primary elements of an MIS infrastructure are backup and recovery plan, disaster recovery plan, and business continuity plan, and these are the key areas associated with an information MIS infrastructure (Turban et al., 2007).

2. What is an agile MIS infrastructure and what are its characteristics, benefits and effects?
An agile MIS infrastructure is the combination of hardware, software, and telecommunication equipments used by an organization in which all the tools work together as a wholesome system that supports the goals and objectives of the organization (Furukawa, 2001). An agile MIS infrastructure allows portability to an application making it easy to be operated on any device or on any software platform (Furukawa, 2001). It has to be taken into account that an agile MIS befits the need of altering the demands of the market and this is applicable to most genres of businesses. There are different components of an agile MIS infrastructure encompassing accessibility, maintainability, availability, reliability, portability, usability, and scalability, and these are the factors that characterize an agile MIS infrastructure (Furukawa, 2001). It has to be noted that the primary advantages of using an agile MIS infrastructure is that; it can be adopted by different levels of users and provides easy access at varying levels of operations. Moreover, it ensures correct functioning of a system ensuring accuracy in the process of information delivery across the organization (Chaudhary et al., 2017). It is also noteworthy that an agile MIS infrastructure provides satisfaction to users at different levels of the operating systems. Furthermore, the primary advantage of an agile MIS infrastructure is its capacity and potential to effectively take into consideration the changing demands of the market and the changing trends among different customer segments (Chaudhary et al., 2017).

3. In what ways do MIS impact the Environment? Is it helpful or harmful?
The impact of MIS on the environment has been determined to be largely negative. This is primarily because MIS can increase electronic waste along with increasing carbon emissions and it instigates ewaste entailing the spread of discarded, obsolete, and broken electronic devices that can eventually increase environmental pollution (Shah, 2014). Moreover, it has been observed that extensive use of the MIS can eventually give rise to energy depletion. This can be argued by citing the fact that extensive use of MIS requires increased energy consumption, depleting energy sources in a constant manner (Shah, 2014). Besides, the problem of triggering increase in carbon emission is quite evident in MIS processes and implementations because the use of MIS entails increased use of power that eventually instigate emission of greenhouse gases, which is related to high energy use (Shah, 2014). But in order to reap the benefits of MIS there have been developments going around MIS. In this respect the emergence of sustainable and green MIS deserves special mention. Information system and information technology management have been experiencing sporadic developments and research in greening of and ushering sustainability in management of information system in the business contexts (Sarkis et al., 2013). This has largely benefitted the users of MIS system in terms of remaining socially and environmentally responsible.

4. What are the three components of a sustainable MIS infrastructure and the benefits they provide? Why would a company want a sustainable MIS Infrastructure?
There are some specific components of a sustainable MIS infrastructure. The three major components of a sustainable MIS infrastructure are grid computing, cloud computing, and virtualized computing (Kumar & Charu, 2015). Both grid and cloud computing are essentially used to process tasks effectively but grid computing is used in cloud computing despite not being a part of cloud computing (Kumar & Charu, 2015). Both grid and cloud computing are used in the efficient management of massive computer infrastructures and they are used for increasing the efficiency of distributed computing, which is used for computing an elements over an extensive area through connecting computers originating in distances and separated by geographical locations and presence (Kumar & Charu, 2015). Moreover, grid computing constitutes multiple systems in a network making it easier for users to have ownership (Watson, Boudreau & Chen, 2010). It is noteworthy that virtualized computing helps immensely in terms of providing cloud computing with a better security and this is the primary benefit of implementing and using virtualized computing (Watson, Boudreau & Chen, 2010). Besides, from the economic perspectives, grid computing is more cost-effective, owing to the fact that it splits the work and effectively distributes the tasks over network to different computers, making it easier for the users to contribute to the overall efficiency of the MIS infrastructure (Watson, Boudreau & Chen, 2010). Furthermore, a company must go for adopting sustainable MIS to become more socially and environmentally responsible and to become more cost-effective in business approaches.

5. Describe technical architecture as a structured process and compare it to software architecture. How are these two related? In what ways does it allow us to design better systems?
The process that is applied especially to the design and construction of software applications are called technical architecture in the context of managing business information system and both technical architecture and software architecture are interrelated from the perspective of entailing some major components of software engineering, including processes of ensuring consistency, maintainability, flexibility, and modularity (King et al., 1989). The interrelation of technical architecture and software architecture has direct relation with bettering the system design and this is evident from the fact that both the architectures promote the implementation and use of best practices for maintaining a robust and transparent software architecture which leverages the technical architecture in a way that enables attainment of desired states of computation, complying with the goals and objectives of the organization (King et al., 1989).

6. In what ways do Information Technology (IT) architecture impact and influence company operations? Would you agree that it is vital to a company? Provide examples in your explanation.
Information technology (IT) infrastructure influences and impacts company operations largely and that is one primary reason why the effectiveness of an IT infrastructure is one of the major determinants of business success both in the short- and long-run. IT architecture is the tool that enables business agility in survival along with providing the competitive edge. Moreover, an effective IT infrastructure influences the ability of the business leveraging the same through making it more capable of actively responding to threats or opportunities provided by both internal and external environments (Bradley & Byrd, 2007). Moreover, the robustness of an IT infrastructure is a key to gaining flexibility in operations and agility in terms of making evidence-based decisions (Bradley & Byrd, 2007). Furthermore, a robust IT infrastructure is vital to a company primarily because it provides the company with the opportunity of enhancing its governance, communication processes, and it provides scopes for integration of innovations.

References

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Furukawa, M. (2001). Database Agile Management Dependent on MIS Infrastructure. Proceedings Of The 2001 Insite Conference. https://doi.org/10.28945/2427
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Turban, E., Sharda, R., Delen, D., & Efraim, T. (2007). Decision support and business intelligence systems. Pearson Education India.
Watson, R. T., Boudreau, M. C., & Chen, A. J. (2010). Information systems and environmentally sustainable development: energy informatics and new directions for the IS community. Management Information Systems Quarterly, 34(1), 4.